Shore
by Kaylee Alice Harman
Summary: One is from the sea, the other from the land. How will they make it work when Elsa is sworn to secrecy about her underwater home? Two kindred souls search for friendship and find each other. Based off of the song Shore by Secretly Geek. Mermaid!AU Rated for minor language and certain scenes.
1. First Sight

Chapter One: First Sight

The waters of the fjord were churning roughly in the dark night. The people living on the coast of the small inlet were perplexed; no storm clouds appeared in the distance yet the water was choppy and dangerous. The rulers of the small, underwater kingdom of Arendelle knew better. The choppy waves signaled the distress of their heiress apparent. Elsa, the crown princess of Arendelle, was perhaps unique. She was born with the power of hydrokinesis. As Arendelle was located underwater, the weather in the kingdom was always subject to change with her emotions. The kingdom's inhabitants were none the wiser; they simply believed that a storm was brewing in the upper-world. The water was swirling in a maelstrom around the castle, just as the princess's emotions were swirling within her.

"I feel absolutely suffocated in here. I am stuck in this forsaken castle day in and day out. Why can I not leave for just one day?!" The princess shouted at her parents in frustration. She was swimming back and forth across the room, her platinum blonde hair flying behind her in its usual braid. "I think some company is overdue. There is simply no one to talk to besides the servants and the pictures on the walls." She gestured sharply at one of the many portraits hanging on the walls of the throne room. "I am going insane."

"Elsa, you know that it's too dangerous. You could get hurt, or hurt someone with your power," explained the King of Arendelle.

Elsa paused, hurt by his accusation. "It would be nice if you had faith in my control for once, Papa. I learned it from you after all. 'Conceal, don't feel, put on a show. Make one wrong move and everyone will know.'" She took a deep breath, trying desperately to calm the storm inside of her while inadvertently calming the whirlpool outside the castle.

"And sweetheart, what would we do if something happened to you?" asked the Queen in a gentle voice.

"Well, I suppose that you would have to find a new heir," the blonde quipped angrily. This was followed by gasps from both monarchs.

"How could you even think like that? We love you, Elsa," the Queen said, sounding a bit choked up by her only daughter's remark.

"If you loved me, you would not imprison me in my own home!" Elsa's anger overwhelmed her and she lost control of her temper and her powers. The castle was encased in a vortex of the princess's creation. The King and Queen looked to each other in horror, fearful of the daughter they supposedly loved. When she realized that she had lost control, Elsa took a deep breath and once again reined in the storm. She spared her parents only a glare before swimming off to her room and slamming the door behind her.

* * *

Of course, the princess could not herself be reined in so easily as her storm. That night she made a plan of escape. When day broke, she locked the door of her room, not that anyone would come looking for her when she was in this bad of a mood, and went to her window. Elsa had looked out the same window for so many years without ever seeing the outside. She quietly sang to herself, a habit developed in her years of isolation.

"Look at the world, so close, and I am halfway to it. Look at it all, so big; do I even dare? Look at me, there at last! I just have to do it. Should I? No." She paused, glancing back into her room before strengthening her resolve. "Here I go." She swam quickly out of the window, not looking back. After ten minutes of speedily swimming away, Elsa could see herself nearing both the shore and the surface of the water. She paused before surfacing to ascertain what environment she was about to put herself in.

The princess heard a voice humming from just above the water. She surfaced behind a tall rock to listen in. As Elsa peered out from behind the rock, she saw a beautiful redheaded girl walking down the dock. She simply sat on the edge of the dock, swinging her legs slightly as her toes skimmed the water, humming quietly to herself. This mysterious girl had her hair in two plaits, one of which contained a small platinum streak. Her face was more freckled than anyone Elsa had ever seen. (Granted, she had not seen very many people in her years of isolation.) In her intense focus, Elsa hadn't noticed that the girl had stopped humming. The redhead heard a small splash; Elsa's fixation caused her to forget the rule about not being seen or heard by surface dwellers and her tail had curled up behind her reflexively. As the girl turned toward the source of the noise, she nearly caught sight of Elsa who quickly dove beneath the water. Her tail splashed above the water just long enough for the stranger to see it.

"What the?" the girl muttered to herself. "Was that what I thought it was? Am I hallucinating?"

Elsa hovered just below the surface, holding her breath with anticipation. She had snuck out of the castle and almost exposed her secret world to a surface dweller. Thankfully, the redhead seemed to think that she was in fact hallucinating from dehydration. She slid her shoes back on and walked away with a second glance at a rock formation just off the dock.

Elsa quickly swam back home and thanked her lucky stars that neither her parents nor the beautiful stranger had caught her transgression to the surface.

* * *

As Elsa sat in her room that evening, she could not get the human girl out of her mind. The girl was beautiful, unnervingly so. She had to go back. She had to see the stranger again.

* * *

Back on dry land, the redheaded girl's thoughts followed the same line. She had to return to the dock and see what exactly it was she saw earlier that day. It had looked almost like a really big fish tail, but fish do not surface. Whales come to the surface. Maybe it was a fishy-looking whale? She shook her head. It could not be; the tail was too small to be a whale. She resolved to figure it out tomorrow by going back to investigate.


	2. Friendship

**Author's Note: I cannot believe the response that this story has gotten already. Thank you all so much for reading, following, and adding to your favorites. A few special thank yous go out to lovin-elsanna on Tumblr for beta-reading, elsannaheadcanons on Tumblr for allowing me to anonymously promote the story, and the anon who left the first (and currently only) review. **

* * *

Chapter Two: Friendship

Elsa woke early the next morning and, after changing her seashells and plaiting her hair, sped off to the same dock she had visited the day prior. In her excitement, she managed to arrive five minutes earlier than the day before. She surfaced behind the rock and peeked out, looking for the beautiful stranger. As she looked over at the dock, a pair of ocean blue eyes met her own. _Shit._ She stuck her head back behind the rock and prepared to dive when a melodious voice called to her.

"Wait! Please don't leave! I won't hurt you or anything. I just want to be friends," the voice called out, almost pleadingly. Elsa poked her head back out hesitantly to see the same girl from yesterday sitting on the dock, dipping her toes in the water again.

"Hi there, stranger. We kind of met yesterday but kind of didn't. I'm Anna Hansen. I live in the next town over." Elsa came out from behind her rock and slowly swam over to the dock, being careful not to let her tail show. As soon as she reached the dock, the questions began to flow from the curious redhead.

"What's your name? Where are you from? What are you?" the redhead babbled. "Is your name Freya? You look like a Freya to me. Or maybe, is it Gerda? I don't know. Are you from around here?" Finally, after an innumerable amount of questions, the blonde cut in when Anna took a breath to answer at least one.

"My name is Elsa. Elsa of Arendelle. It is nice to meet you Anna of Hansen." Both girls immediately noticed the difference in their speaking patterns. Anna sounded carefree, like a normal teenager; Elsa sounded like someone performing a poorly rehearsed part. Anna let a small laugh escape from her mouth.

"You talk like someone out of a cheesy old movie. And it's Anna Hansen. Not Anna of Hansen. I don't live in Hansen. Is that even a town?" She paused, contemplating her own question, before continuing. "I don't think it is. Anyway, I guess you're from Arendelle then? What's your real last name?"

"Of Arendelle?" the blonde replied, confused.

"You don't have a last name? Oh, okay. That's cool. Just Elsa. Anyway, onto more important questions. Why'd you run, well I guess swim would be the better word actually since you were in the water. Why'd you swim away from me yesterday? And did you see that thing yesterday? What was that thing, it looked like it had a whale-fish tail?" Anna was simply being her perky self, but her perkiness was wearing out poor Elsa. The heiress was not used to human interaction, especially not being interrogated.

"I was afraid," she whispered softly. Anna caught the words and had to tease her new companion to lighten the mood.

"Afraid of what? Do I look scary or something?" Anna asked. "If I do, I should know. I don't want to scare people." Now it was Elsa's turn to laugh. She covered her mouth with her hand as she giggled quietly. "Or was the fish-thingy the scary one?"

"No, you are not scary. I just did not want to get caught." Elsa bit her tongue at that revelation and made certain to ignore the last question. She had known the girl all but two minutes and was already about to give up all her secrets. What was wrong with her?

"Caught?" Anna questioned, raising one eyebrow. She seemed to sense the blonde's reluctance to answer and shrugged with a smile. "Alright, we can skip that one. So, where is Arendelle anyway?" Once again, the blonde girl hesitated. Anna asked with a sigh, "Are there any questions you can answer?" Elsa let another small giggle slip as she shook her head slowly. Anna flopped backwards on the dock with exasperation before coming up with another question. "How old are you?"

"I just celebrated my twenty-first birthday this past week. How old are you?" Elsa questioned.

"I'm only eighteen. We're only three years apart! That's cool. Now we totally have to be friends." Anna grinned from ear to ear. Elsa found her face mimicking the redhead's unconsciously. Anna's enthusiasm was truly contagious. It took the redhead a moment to pick up the other important detail that Elsa had said. "Wait, what? Your birthday was last week? I missed it?!" the girl screeched.

Elsa winced at the high pitch the other girl managed to reach and sank a bit lower into the water. "You did not know me last week. It would not make sense for you to have known my birthday before you knew me."

Anna gave the blonde a look that plainly said That is not a real answer. "Yeah, but we're best friends now. So I should have gotten you a present. Don't worry," she reassured Elsa. "I'll find something good."

Elsa was stuck on the first sentence. "Best friends?" she questioned.

"Well, yeah. I mean, you're the only friend I really have. Besides Kristoff, but he's a guy and my almost-boyfriend so he doesn't really count," Anna admitted to her new best friend. "I mean, that's assuming you want to be friends?" the redhead asked, biting her lip in anticipation of the answer.

"I have a friend? A best friend?" Elsa looked down at her hands and whispered to herself in disbelief. "I have never had anyone actually like me before or not be afraid of me, besides…" She trailed off, not daring to finish her thought and make herself sad over the past. "But now I have a real friend." Finally her excitement broke through her icy façade as she beamed up at Anna. "Of course I would enjoy being friends." Underneath the water, Elsa's powers were whipping the water around her tail with the force of the girl's excitement. She could care less about the exposure of her powers. She had a friend!

She let her excitement grow for a minute before freezing up. How could she possibly be friends with a surface-dweller without giving up the secret of mermaids? Would Anna be afraid if she revealed her powers, or her tail? Meanwhile, Anna watched as Elsa's face lit up and then slowly faded to a frozen stupor; her facial expression followed suit.

"Elsa," she started. "Is everything okay?"

It took Elsa a moment to compose herself to the point where she could answer. "Oh, yes. Everything is absolutely fine." Her perfectly practiced mask was plastered upon her face once more. "I do have to go though." The blonde slowly started backing away from the dock towards her rock. She paused before submerging herself and looked back to see Anna watching sadly. "Will I see you again, Anna Hansen?" She bit her lip gently, hoping desperately that Anna's answer would be….

"I'll be back here tomorrow at the same time. Will you come back?" Anna smiled, her optimism already coming back at the prospect of seeing her one and only friend again.

"Of course. How could I stay away from my new best friend?" With that parting remark, Elsa sunk back into the water and took off for her home. Anna watched the water for a moment before wandering onto the beach in search of her shoes.


	3. Icy Storm

Chapter Three: Icy Storm

Elsa could not get rid of the smile on her face. It had been there almost constantly for the past two days, ever since she saw Anna for the first time. She finally returned back home through the window and laid herself down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling wistfully. She desperately wished that she could have a friend without having so many secrets separate them.

Suddenly, there was a knock at her door. "Princess Elsa?" Elsa thanked her luck that she had gotten home in time to answer the knock. The servant at the door knocked once more. "Princess Elsa? Are you in there?"

"Who is it?" she called out.

"Just Kai, ma'am. The King and Queen are looking for you. They request your presence in the throne room." Kai spoke through the door.

"Please tell them I will be there as soon as I am able," she replied unenthusiastically. Truthfully, she had no intentions of going to meet them. All Elsa wanted to do was be happy, and she knew that seeing her parents would only ruin her good mood.

Kai stuttered a bit, caught between two orders. "I-I'm sorry, Princess. They've asked me to take you there myself. Immediately."

The young heiress sighed. "Give me a moment." She glanced in the mirror and added a touch of color to her lips using a red algae stain. The color stood out profoundly against her pale complexion. She then swam slowly to her jewelry box and opened it, revealing the small tiara that she had received on her twenty-first birthday. She twirled her flyaway bangs into a twist that went across her head. When she ran out of bangs to twist, she began to incorporate her braid. She twisted the platinum blonde braid into a bun and pinned it into place behind her head. Elsa carefully lifted the tiara and placed it behind the twist atop her head. After sliding on a pair of gloves, she was ready. If it was a princess they wanted, it was a princess they would get. The blonde swam to her door and threw it open, startling Kai who was standing just outside. "Let us go, Kai," she said with an icy tone in her voice. The servant bowed slightly and began leading her to the throne room.

* * *

The simplest way to get to the throne room from Elsa's wing of the castle was through the hall of portraits. Elsa paused as Kai hurried through. He realized that his charge was not behind him any longer and peered back in the room. "Princess?" Elsa had stopped in the center of the room, looking at one of the portraits.

"Would you mind waiting a bit, Kai? I will be just a moment," she promised. Kai nodded and let the door close behind him. The heiress looked back to one of the portraits that she had always been fond of. The portrait of Joan of Arc. She swam closer, remembering all the years in solitude when Joan was her only company. _She was just like me_, Elsa thought. _She was persecuted for her supposed powers. I bet all that she wanted was to have a friend._

"I guess it is still just you and me," she muttered. "It is us against them, trying to keep ourselves alive. Hang in there, Joan. I will try to keep it together, but who knows if I will be able to with _them_." The blonde glanced down at her hands, tugging the gloves on further as if they could help her retain some semblance of control over both her emotions and powers. She moved to exit, glancing back at her childhood companion once more before closing the door between them.

* * *

The two arrived at the throne room in relatively good time. Kai slid in first. "Now presenting Her Royal Highness, Princess Elsa of Arendelle." Another two servants then opened the double doors, allowing her entrance to the room. Elsa swam in slowly with her head held high, looking disdainfully at the monarchs seated before her. The Queen seemed taken aback by the coldness with which her daughter treated her. The King may have been surprised by the new air, but he did not show it.

"You are dismissed," he called out to the servants in the room. Once the door close behind them, he got up off of his throne. The Queen quickly followed suit.

"Your Majesties," the princess said softly, acting out her part with a small curtsey.

"Elsa," the King began, "we wanted to see how you were after your little outburst the other day." He started toward her, looking like he wanted to take her hand. She kicked her tail and shot a foot away from her father.

"As you can see, I am perfectly fine. May I leave now?" Elsa did not want to be with her parents. She wanted to be back in her room, alone, daydreaming about her new best friend.

"No, you may not," her father ordered. "Elsa…"

"Do not use that tone with your father," the Queen demanded angrily. Elsa took a deep breath. She was trying desperately to not lose control. _Do they want me to lose it?_ she thought to herself. She brought her arms in around her, almost hugging herself, in an attempt to hold herself together.

"Mama, Papa, I have been your daughter for twenty-one years now. Have you ever seen me shed a single tear?" Both monarchs stopped to think about it before shaking their heads. "I am fine. I am not crying and I am completely fine." The princess seemed to be trying to convince herself of that fact as much as she was trying to convince her parents. She realized that her control was slipping, turned, and started to leave.

"Elsa, wait!" Her mother made to grab her left hand and her glove flew off into the Queen's hands. Elsa gasped and held her bare hand close to her chest, reaching for her glove with her other hand in a state of panic.

"Give me my glove!" she commanded.

"Elsa, you can't live like this anymore," the King said sadly. "You can open up to us."

"I opened up to you two days ago and you dismissed me. I have had enough of it." She brought her arms back around herself, trying to hold in the storm raging within her as she swam for the door.

"Sweetheart-" Elsa whipped around, cutting off the sentence.

"I said, enough!" she yelled, throwing her left arm out as she turned. Ice shot out of her hand and spread into spikes across the floor, separating the princess from the rulers. Her eyes widened and she floated backwards until her back hit the door. She held her bare hand close to her chest. The King and Queen stared in shock at the shards of ice that now defiled their throne room before turning their eyes back to their daughter.

"Elsa…" the Queen whispered. Her eyes were alight with fear. The blonde could not handle the terror in her parents' eyes; they were afraid, afraid of _her._

Elsa's gloved hand scrambled for the door handle. When she found it, she threw the door open and swam away as fast as she possibly could to her bedroom. Her emotions spawned a snow storm in the room. She barricaded herself in and collapsed against the door sobbing while the storm raged on.

* * *

**Author's Note: I am dreadfully sorry that it took this long to update. I like to have the next chapter finished in advance. Please do not expect any updates for at least the next week; schoolwork is starting to demand more of my time. I apologize, but schoolwork comes first. Please let me know if you like the story, if you have any criticisms, if there's a horrible error that was missed in the editing process (there should not be but you never know), or any predictions you might have. As always, thank you for reading.**


	4. Family Ties

Chapter 4: Family Ties

Anna eventually found her shoes. How they got all the way on the other side of the beach was beyond her comprehension. She slid the flip flops back onto her feet.

"Ew, sand stuck in my shoes," she muttered. The redhead pulled the shoes back off and resigned herself to carrying them home. She didn't live too far from the beach anyway. Anna began skipping home. She went about half a mile through the sand before going up to one of the shore-side houses and scraping the sand off of her feet. Father would kill her if she tracked sand through the house.

"Dad!" she called out as she entered. "I'm home from the beach!" Footsteps were heard coming down the main stairway and Anna hurried over. Her father stood at the foot of the stairs. A grin spread across her face as she ran up and hugged him tightly.

"Good morning, my sunshine," he said with a chuckle, wrapping his arms around the girl. "How was your walk across the beach this morning?"

The tiny redhead promptly twirled out of his arms with a laugh. "It was wonderful! I made a friend Dad. A real, live friend." Her smile lit up the room.

Her father, Hans Hansen, felt a pang of guilt in his heart. It was his and his wife's fault that Anna had never gotten the chance to make friends. His wife's business led them to travel all around the world, never staying in one place for longer than a year. He was content to drift around. They always lived near a port where the fish bit and he made a hefty profit with his catch. But Anna… Constantly moving was not good for friendships and they had first started moving when she was five.

When she was just a child, he watched her make friends and then be crushed whenever the family had to leave. The other children promised to keep in touch, but children are notoriously bad at keeping promises. By the age of ten, she stopped trying to make friends. In her own words, "It's better to be lonely than to get hurt when they all break their promises anyway."

This, however, was the last stop on the journey of world traveling for the Hansen family. Anna's mother had passed away almost a year ago. That was when they moved to live on the fjords, back in Anna's childhood home. They had only been back for six months now, but Anna already had more friends than ever. This new friend and that Bjorgman boy.

"Congratulations sweetheart. I knew you would. You're too lovable to not make friends," he replied with a smile.

"Oh, and Daddy? I'm going to go visit Kristoff later. He wants me to meet his family now that we've been sorta-kinda going out for a few months," she remarked.

"That's fine with me; just don't be home too late," he said, raising an eyebrow. He wasn't aware that they were dating, or even almost dating. He thought they were simply good friends. There would most definitely be a talk about this later. "Anyway, I'm off to work. The fish don't catch themselves." He bent down slightly and kissed the top of her head. "I love you. Call me if you need me." He picked up his bag and slung it over one shoulder. As he left out the back door, Anna called out to him.

"Bye Daddy! Love you more! I'll leave lunch in the fridge in case you forgot yours, again." She chuckled at her own joke before going up the stairs to her room. She chucked the sandy shoes into the back of her closet and dug around in the shoe pile for a pair of sneakers. "Aha!" she cried out, dragging one sneaker out from the bottom of the pile. She fished around for another minute before triumphantly pulling out its pair. A pair of socks was pulled from the dresser. She pulled on the socks and shoes and glanced in the mirror. She was a bit sandy, but still presentable.

Anna undid her hair and brushed it out before putting it into two braids. She put on a little bit of lip gloss and eye shadow and decided she was ready to go.

* * *

Anna picked up her house key off of the island in the kitchen and stuffed it into the small purse type thing she grabbed off of the back of a chair. She went out the front door this time and locked it behind her before starting off down the street. Thankfully, the Bjorgmans didn't live too far away. Anna got bored of walking pretty quickly and her thoughts drifted to her new best friend Elsa. She wondered why the blonde girl only stayed in the water and didn't come out to bask in the sun on the beach. _Maybe her fingers and toes were all wrinkled and she was too embarrassed to come _out, she thought. _Maybe she only has one leg and she's self-conscious about it. Oh, maybe she's training to swim across the ocean and wanted to practice floating. She looked like a decent swimmer so that could totally be it._ She got bored of her theories eventually and decided to sing herself a little song to pass the time. Elsa was still on her mind, so she came up with a little tune about meeting her new friend.

"Meet me by the sandy shore," she quietly sang to herself. "Down by the rock at our favorite port. I'll chat you up on the bank." After a few moments, she laughed at herself. She had known the blonde for two days, _technically one but who's counting?_ she thought. Why couldn't she get the girl off of her mind? She was so distracted that she almost walked directly into a lamppost. She tapped it with her hand lightly, feeling the hard metal beneath her fingertips. "Yeesh, good thing I didn't hit that. That could have seriously dented my face." The redhead carefully stepped around the lamppost and continued walking until she reached a cute, pale blue beachfront shack. It wasn't the biggest of houses, but it was by no means small either. Anna took a breath to calm her nerves and stepped up to the front door of Kristoff's house.

* * *

Coincidentally, Kristoff was also arriving at Kristoff's house. "Hi Kristoff," she said, looking up at the tall dirty-blonde's face.

"Hi Anna," he echoed back with a grin, looking down significantly to actually see her face. "Welcome to my house. Just a warning though, my family can be a little bit inappropriate. And loud, very loud. They're also stubborn at times, and a little overbearing. And-" Anna cut him off.

"Kristopher, don't worry. They sound wonderful," she reassured him. He grumbled a bit at the Kristopher part; he absolutely loathed that nickname.

"Thanks feisty-pants," he said, smiling. "Oh, just one more thing?"

"Shoot," she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"I may have forgotten to tell them that you were coming…" Kristoff said sheepishly.

"What do you mean you forgot?!"

* * *

After Kristoff managed to calm down the feisty redhead, he opened up the door and strolled confidently inside. Anna trailed behind him, unsure of herself. "Hey everyone, I'm home!" shouted Kristoff. Bulda Bjorgman stuck her head out from the kitchen where she was preparing lunch for everyone.

"Kristoff's home!" she hollered, smiling at him. Four little ones came running out from all corners of the house. One slid down the railing of the stairs; another two came from a bedroom down the hall, and the last one slid out of the kitchen from behind her mother.

"Kristoff!" all the kids yelled excitedly. The twin boys both jumped on him simultaneously, one on his back and the other on his front. The youngest boy started running up to his big brother but tripped and rolled over instead. The baby of the family, a little girl, slid over and hugged Kristoff's leg.

"Guys, guys, one at a time," he said with a chuckle. "Behave, we have company." He gestured with his head toward where Anna stood. She waved a little and mumbled a hello.

"He's brought a girl!" Bulda shouted enthusiastically. She threw down her sandwich-making utensils and rushed over to see Kristoff's friend. The twins dropped off of Kristoff in shock and hit the floor with a small thud. Upon hearing that there was a girl, her husband Cliff came bounding down the stairs.

"Kristoff," he muttered to his son. "You never mentioned that you would be bringing a girl home."

Kristoff gave an uneasy laugh. "I forgot?" That was not a good enough answer and his father lightly slapped him upside the back of the head. "Anyway," he said, sidestepping away from his father. "Let me introduce you to everyone. This is Mom and Dad. They adopted me when I was eight. They're the best parents a kid could want." Both parents smiled at the glowing commendation. The oldest son stepped up behind the twins and wrapped an arm around each of them. "And these two trouble-makers are Sebastian and Peter. They're nine years-old." The twins stopped, looking at Anna like they'd never seen a girl before.

Kristoff bent down to help the youngest boy up off of the floor where he lay. "This clumsy little one is Pål. He's five." The small boy waved with chubby fingers at Anna, smiling shyly.

"Aww…" she whispered to herself and then to Kristoff. "He's such a cutie." Kristoff nodded in response before turning to the last child, the little girl.

"And this little ray of sunshine is Lina. She's three and the only girl in the house. Besides Mom of course." The tiny child looked up at Kristoff's friend, her emerald eyes alight. She grabbed onto Kristoff's leg and hugged it tightly. "Everyone, this is Anna."

"Hi," the redhead squeaked out as all eyes went to her; her face went bright red with her blush. She never did like being the center of attention.

"Well, who's hungry?" Mrs. Bjorgman asked, going back to the kitchen to make an extra sandwich.

* * *

One awkward lunch later, Kristoff and Anna stepped out into the backyard of the Bjorgman house. Anna sat down on the soft grass and crossed her legs, watching as a large Norwegian Elkhound came bounding over to his owner excitedly. The dog pounced and managed to knock the blonde on his back before sitting on him and licking his face. Kristoff smiled brightly and laughed.

"Anna," he attempted to say around the dog's frantic licking of his face. "This is Sven."

"Hi Sven," she said with a little wave. Sven looked over at the tiny redhead and ran over to her, tucking his head under her hand to signal that he wanted to be petted. Anna threw her head back laughing but obliged the command of the hound and began to pet him, much to Sven's enjoyment. Kristoff looked puzzled; the redhead gave him a questioning look.

"Usually Sven doesn't take to strangers so kindly. He really likes you," he commented. Anna looked confused and her hand stilled on the dog's head.

"That's a good thing right?" Her almost-boyfriend nodded slightly in response and stood up from where he lay. Sven looked at Anna as if to tell her that he must be petted, again. Kristoff picked up a ball from the grass near the doghouse and held it near his dog's nose.

"You wanna play, Sven?" he said with a chuckle. Sven immediately stopped bothering Anna and began salivating over the idea of catch. The blonde threw the ball high in the air and it began to drop near the other side of the yard. The elkhound ran as fast as he could in an attempt to catch the ball before it hit the ground. "Faster, Sven!" Kristoff called out, knowing Sven's ultimate goal. Sven leaped up and snatched the ball out of the air before tumbling to the ground and rolling around with utter contentment. The redheaded girl giggled at Sven's antics. The dog rolled back onto his feet and ran back to Anna, nearly grinning.

She rubbed his head as he rolled onto his back. "Who's a good boy? You are!" she said in a baby voice as she scratched the cute dog's belly. She caught sight of the time on her watch and jumped up. It was almost three o'clock! "Kris, I have to go. I said I'd cook dinner tonight."

"Alright. Should I walk you home?" he asked.

"No, no; it's fine, I'll be fine on my own," she replied. The tall boy reluctantly accepted that answer. He gave his almost-girlfriend a hug and kissed her on the top of her head. A blush spread rapidly across her cheeks. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel when getting kind-of kissed, but she was sure it wasn't supposed to feel this awkward or _wrong._ She gave him a teeny hug in return and quickly backed away from him. Kristoff seemed a bit taken aback by her distance but tried his best not to show it. The two walked through the Bjorgman house once more. Anna said goodbye to everyone; Bulda and little Lina hugged her tightly and both made her promise to come back soon. As she started walking home, one thought crystallized in her mind no matter how hard she tried to push it away.

_If Elsa kissed me, I wouldn't feel as awkward._

* * *

_**Author's Note: I am terribly sorry that this chapter is so late, but I hope that the length makes up for the delay (this is almost twice the length of my usual chapters). A huge thank you goes out again to my beta, Lexei, and Frozest/Secretly Geek for writing the inspiration for this story. The final thank you is to the readers; this story passed 2,000 views a few days ago and you have no idea how happy that makes me feel. **_


	5. Special Snowflake

Chapter Five: Special Snowflake

The next morning, Anna woke up extra early. At seven in the morning instead of her usual nine or ten o'clock. She dusted off her mother's old bike that was left in the garage, bringing back some bittersweet memories, and took a quick trip into the main town square to make a few purchases. She was back home before her father even realized that she was gone, or woke up. She waited impatiently for the next couple hours until it was time to go for her walk on the beach, and to go visit Elsa again.

The redhead tried distracting herself with a book, but that was too boring for the feisty girl and she couldn't make it past page ten before she started dozing off. Instead, she began to obsessively clean her room. Her shoes went from a heaping pile at the bottom of her closet into nice rows, with the pairs being placed next to each other. Anna then hung up or folded the piles of clothes that were strewn across the floor and placed the dirty ones in the hamper. She found her favorite shirt, a _Little Mermaid_ shirt with Ariel on it. That had been missing since the move back to the current Hansen home. She even started doing her summer homework; that lasted about as long as the book reading.

Finally it was the time for her usual walk on the beach and time to see her new friend again. She packed up her new things and a camera in her bag and started sprinting toward the dock. She arrived in no time at all and sat down on the dock awaiting Elsa.

* * *

After a long night filled with tears that froze as they fell, Elsa realized that the light was filtering through the water. Anna, she thought. I have to go see Anna. She paused and looked at her own hands. "Get it together," she muttered. "Control it." It's not like having a power is a new thing. Now it's just more than one type. She made to put on a new pair of gloves and then stopped herself. "Surface dwellers like Anna do not wear gloves in the water. She would know that something was different..." With shaking hands, Elsa replaced the gloves in their little drawer. She grabbed her head with her hand in exasperation and noticed that her hair was still in place.

She pulled the crown off of her head and threw it onto her bed, displeased with all that is currently stood for in her mermaid drew the pins out from behind her head and her bun fell back into a braid. She ran her hands through her loose bangs to slick them back and the hair froze slightly, just enough to secure it into place. "Well, I suppose that this is useful for something after all," she said softly with a slight bit of mirth coloring her voice. The blonde took a bit of clean cloth and wiped down her tail scales to clean off the feel of the snow that had melted on it in the night. She decided to dress up a bit and put on her fanciest seashells that had a halter strap made of strung pearls and a small skirt made of a lost fishing net; Elsa wanted to dress to impress, even if the redhead wouldn't see it.

As she was lost in thoughts about Anna, she forgot about trying to control her newfound power. Without her fear being present, it stayed hidden. Once she felt presentable enough, she froze her door shut to better prevent people from coming in. She swam out the window and made her way to the rock.

* * *

Anna heard a small splashing noise and looked over to the rock where she had first seen Elsa the day prior. Elsa had just surfaced behind it. "Hi Elsa!" Anna cried out with excitement.

"Hello, Anna," Elsa said with a smile. "How are you this morning?"

"Good, and super excited. Guess why?" Anna was literally bouncing up and down with her excitement.

Elsa covered her mouth with her hand and laughed. "I do not know; why?" she replied.

Anna huffed. "No, you have to take a guess. Three wrong guesses and I'll tell you," she bargained.

The blonde stifled another laugh and grinned. "I suppose that is fair." She paused to think for a moment before answering. "Did you go for a swim?"

Her companion gave a big sigh. "Elsa, that is not something to get so super excited over. Try again."

Elsa frowned. Being able to swim around freely was something that made her the happiest mermaid in the ocean. She thought again. "Is it because you woke up early and got a head start on the day?"

Anna just gave the girl a look. "Why would waking up early make me happy?" Elsa shrugged her shoulders; it was something that made her happy. "You are closer though, so one more guess!"

Elsa decided to tease her friend a bit with her last guess. "Is it because you got to see me?" she asked sarcastically.

"That was actually a lot closer! Good job," Anna said excitedly. "It's because I got you..." She fished around in her bag for a minute before setting her hand on the right object. "This!" She whipped out a small box adorned with a sea foam green bow. She set the box down in front of Elsa.

Elsa froze. "A present, for me?" She whispered.

"Open it, open it!" Anna squealed with delight.

Elsa pushed herself up slightly to rest her arms on the dock, being careful not to expose more than her torso to the fresh air. She leaned on her arms and slowly, carefully lifted the lid off of the box. Inside was a silver chain. There were some small beads attached along with a piece of sea glass that matched the bow on the box. Attached over the sea glass was a silver snowflake charm. She lifted it out of the box by the clasp and stared at it in disbelief. Anna's voice permeated her musings.

"I saw it and thought of you. You seem like a snowflake type of person. Do you like it?" the redhead asked.

"I love it," Elsa breathed out, still so enraptured in staring at the gift that she didn't notice the irony of the snowflake and her newfound power. Her head snapped up to look at her friend. "Would you help me put it on please?" she quietly asked, partly because she couldn't get the clasp by herself and partly because she wasn't entirely sure if it was meant to go on her neck, wrist, or head. Anna nodded enthusiastically and beamed as she fastened the bracelet around the blonde's wrist. Elsa twisted her wrist and the bracelet made a jingling noise as the sea glass hit the metal charm and the beads clinked together. Anna watched Elsa as she played with her new gift and bounced up and down, pleased that she liked it.

"I told you that I should have gotten you a present," she said with a grin that bordered on a smirk.

Elsa smiled shyly and sank back down in the water. "Thank you," she replied. "This was unnecessary, but greatly appreciated."

"Totally necessary. But why don't you come out of the water? We can walk on the beach or something. And your bikini top is totally cute. It's like in _The Little Mermaid_, Ariel's seashells," Anna commented. "That's one of my favorite movies of all time." Elsa simply shook her head in response. The redhead sighed. "Why not?" she whined.

Elsa wrapped her arms around herself. "I just cannot."

"Can you tell me why?" The blonde shook her head once more. Anna thought back to her earlier theories. "Is it because you only have one leg and you feel self-conscious about the stump?" Elsa looked startled by Anna's guess and slowly shook her head, holding back a laugh about the ridiculous notion. She did have one leg type thing, but no stump, so she wasn't technically lying.

"I will explain eventually, but for now, please do not ask me to explain. I will do so when I am ready..."

The feisty girl reluctantly agreed to that condition and they remained talking for an hour before Anna had to leave. She recalled the little song that she made up on the spot the day prior on the way to Kristoff's house and sang it for Elsa.

"Hey Elsa, meet me by the sandy shore. Down by the rock at our favorite port. I'll chat you up on the bank," she sang quietly. Elsa smiled.

"I will see you tomorrow Anna." With a smile and wave, the blonde sank below the water and headed for home, playing with her bracelet the entire way home.

* * *

**Author's Note: Thank you again for reading, reviewing, following, and favoriting this story. It truly means a lot to me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review and let me know what you think!**


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